BIBLE

(Gr. /S/gXa?, a book;' from whence the word came to be applied emphatically to the volume of the Old and New Testaments.) The sixth article of the English Church enumerates the books of the Old Testament, which it considers of canonical authority; in which it follows the canon received by the Jews in the time of our Saviour. The apocryphal writings, which are accounted authentic by the Roman Catholics, are of undoubted antiquity, being comprised in the Septuagint edition of the Scriptures; but their authority has never been acknowledged by the Jews, who reckon twenty-four canonical books; nor are their originals found in the Hebrew language. The canon of the New Testament is now received without variation, we believe, in all Christian communities. In the early period of the church, the authenticity of particular books was frequently disputed, and heretical sects attempted to foist other apocryphal writings into their place. The general consent, however, of the orthodox church may be inferred from catalogues extant in the writings of many of the Fathers throughout the first four centuries, anc^ the expre declaration of the council of Laodicea and others. Some latitude of opinion seems, however, to have been allowed in early times respecting the book of Revelations; and some of the Fathers confe that the genuinene o6 St. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews, of that of James, of the second of^ Peter, and two last of John, was held by some to be undecided. BIBLE SOCIETY. [s. 156]